Typical overhead doors are constructed from a plurality of door panels which are hinged together and supported from a track system with rollers attached to opposite ends of the door panels. The rollers generally allow the door to be moved from a vertically oriented closed position to a substantially horizontal open position. Particularly with regard to residential applications, these doors are generally either eight or sixteen feet wide and are typically comprised of horizontally oriented integrally formed panels which are likewise about eight or sixteen feet long. For example, a single car residential garage may have an eight foot wide door while a two car residential garage may have a single sixteen foot wide door or two eight foot wide doors.
One of the main problems with conventional overhead doors concerns their bulk and inability to be easily and cost efficiently transported to the end user. This is especially true when considering the potential retail market for overhead doors which would include, for example, the market serving small builders, remodelers and homeowners or "do-it-yourselfers". At present, the retail market cannot easily serve the needs of such customers due to the problems inherent in the delivery of the eight or sixteen foot wide overhead door. Similarly, "do-it-yourselfers" often avoid the task of installing or replacing overhead doors themselves because of the bulk of the lengthy door panels as well as the unavailability of overhead doors in retail outlets.
Attempts have been made to construct overhead door panels with a plurality of component parts, including smaller door panel sections which may be assembled into a single, longer door panel. U.S Pat. No. 1,983,098 to Pixley; U.S. Pat. No. 2,951,533 to Lucas et al.; and, U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,711 to Fimbell disclose various overhead doors having a panel or panels comprising multiple subsections.
The panels disclosed in the above patents, however, have disadvantages associated with their complexity, bulkiness and/or lack of strength. For example, the single sectioned panel disclosed in the Pixley patent uses complicated vertically oriented clamp members which connect two adjacent panel sections. Such clamp members are not aesthetically pleasing to the typical homeowner and would not provide the door with adequate strength or wind resistance, especially if used to construct an entire door.
The doors disclosed in the Lucas et al. and Fimbell patents each comprise panels formed with multiple constituent pieces, however, each of these doors require upper and lower horizontal frame or support members and a plurality of vertical support mullions or struts for connecting panel subsections together. In addition to being complicated structures as a result of all of the supporting frame members, the upper and lower horizontal frame members disclosed in each of these patents are required to be approximately as long as the door is wide. Therefore, for example, in a residential application the horizontal frame members would have to be either eight or sixteen feet long. As a result, just as with doors comprised of one-piece integral door panels, these doors would be difficult to stock and difficult for the average retail consumer to both transport and assemble.
There is a need, therefore, for an overhead door which may be more easily transported and stocked, yet which is aesthetically pleasing and sufficiently strong and wind resistant for a large variety of applications.